8 Workouts You Can Do In 8 Minutes Or Less (With No Gym)

Literally every person reading this post can get a KILLER workout in, in just 8 minutes… And the best part is, most of these workouts don’t even require equipment. Just you and your own body weight. The few that do require equipment are pretty basic like dumbbells and kettlebells.

Let’s get started…

Home Workouts…

1. Push & Burp

This one created plenty of comments when I posted the video of me sucking wind as I did opposing ladders of push ups and burpees. The video clocks in at 8 minutes and 26 seconds including intro and text screens, so you can definitely get it done in 8 minutes or less. The Push & Burp workout is 9 push ups followed by 1 burpee, 8 push ups followed by 2 burpees. . . all the way until you do 1 push up and 9 burpees. Equipment required: none.

2. Pull n’ Push

Maximum strict pull-ups followed by maximum pushups. Hit the major pushing and pulling muscles of the upper body with this classic super set. Set the clock for 8 minutes and get through as many sets as you can. Count your total reps and try to beat that number the next time you do the drill. Equipment required: pull up bar.

3. Hurts so Good

Do five dive bombers followed by 10 lunge jumps (five each side). See how many rounds you can get through in eight minutes. Equipment required: none.

4. Walking Lunge – Burpee combo

Take 20 walking lunge steps and then do 10 burpees. Repeat 5 times. I do this one with a 20lb. vest on occasion and my legs are sore for days! Equipment needed: none (weight vest optional).

5. You Gotta Tabata!

Tabata squat (watch the speed below) followed by Tabata push ups. If you have never tried Tabata intervals, they are brutal and perfect for when you are crunched for time. A Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times. That’s four minutes total per exercise for all of you mathematicians out there. Equipment needed: An interval timer. I like this one you can find online here: interval timer.

6. Death By Swinging

Perform 20 kettlebell swings followed by maximum kipping pull-ups (this means you can swing your body). If your pull up bar is too low or not strong enough for kips, just do strict pull ups. But the kipping pull-up combined with the swings will get that heart rate cranking! Complete as many rounds as possible in eight minutes. Equipment needed: 1 kettlebell and a pull up bar.

7. One Arm Dumbbell Snatch Ladder

An awesome drill for explosiveness and metabolic conditioning. Do 1 dumbbell power snatch with the left and then do 1 with the right. Do 2 with the left, and then 2 with the right. Keep going until you complete 5 with the left and 5 with the right.

If your heart doesn’t feel like it’s about the explode from your chest and you feel like you could take it to sixes, then your dumbbell was too light. Grab a heavier one and try again! Equipment needed: 1 dumbbell.

8. The Man Maker

I’ve seen a few variations of this drill, but this is the way I typically have clients do it. Start in a standing position with a dumbbell in each hand. I find that 20lb or 25lb dumbbells work good for an average male client.

You’ll also want to use the hex style dumbbells so you can lay them flat. Squat down until the dumbbells are flat on the ground. Kick your feet back into the top of the push-up position, with your feet a little wider than normal. Do a push up followed immediately by a one arm row with the left. Do another push-up followed by a one arm row with the right. Spring your feet forward so you are again in the squat position. Power clean the dumbbells to the shoulder and then push press them overhead. That’s one rep.

See how many you can get through in 8 minutes. Enjoy! Required equipment: 2 dumbbells.

Great post Vic! I think the name “manmaker” is a bit misleading. I guess it’s implying where you’ll eventually get after you do them. However, while doing them, they should be called “vomitoutmyearsmaker” or something of that sort.

Tomato, Tomatto. Pull up, Chin up. Seriously, I know pull up is typically done palms facing away from you and chin ups are done palms facing you. And I agree the “chin up” is a bit easier than the palms forward version. My concern is more about range of motion than which way the hands face: arms fully extended at the bottom and chin above the bar at the top! How you get there is up to you.

vic, these are awesome workouts. I have been doing cardio and lifting for the past year and lost about 50lbs. I love to lift, but am bored with cardio – so getting this post now is incredibly timely. I’m going to dump the slow cardio in favor of trying these tabata workouts and just getting on my bike and riding, as well as throwing my kayak in the water and paddling hard. I think this should jump start the last 40 lbs of weight loss I want to achieve. thanks so much for all your info.

Colm, there are different ways to do the kettlebell swing. The one in the video is sometimes called “Russian Style” and the one you are referring to (full extension overhead) is sometimes called “American Style”. I personally use both methods. Also, swings can be done with only one hand as you mention. Whether you go over head, eye level, one hand, or two, the most important thing to remember is to engage the hips and make sure the gluts and hamstrings are doing the work. Thanks!

Thanks so much for these workouts. I haven’t even heard of some of them, so great fun to spice my life up a bit…lol I tried the dive bomb/lunge jump (jesus, I never did a dive bomb before, they are madness! 🙂 And I tried the DB snatch altho only have a 10lb max weight which i think I’m too used to now. Must buy another.

Still can’t do a pull up 🙁 but much better at ‘man’ push ups now 😀

Just one question. I know you are being super helpful to people that dont have much time and doing 8 mins is better than nothing. However, even though these workouts are intense, I never feel like 8 mins is enough, so I would do 3 different sets (say) to get to a 30 minute workout. Is that ok?

1. I love the man maker – I haven’t tried it yet – but it just looks crazy!
2. I can’t wait to see you answer to @Tuscanystone – everything I have read on your site so far has really changed my mind on cardio – before my I thought that you had to have long sessions for it to be useful.

I really like workouts 1 and 2. If you’ve got a pull up bar at home, go for the one with the pull up. Otherwise you get a great workout, no equipment needed, with only pushups and burpees, prison cell style!

Glad it’s finally spring here so I can workout outside on the playground with the added bonus of natural vitamin D 🙂

Thank you VIC. However, it is sometimes very difficult to overcome feeling guilty of not going to the gym. It feels as if the body comes down:):)For the last 7 days I have been working out with light weights and sometimes it feels unbearable. The burning sensation is there. After this 7 day light workout, is it OK to start the heavy routine like 98kg bench press, four reps, three sets. This is my max.

Thanks for the website.
Re: #5. “You Gotta Tabata…Tabata Squats followed by Tabata pushups”…You have a video of the Tabata squats, but only regular pushups. What exactly is a Tabata push up ? How is it different from a regular one? Or is the tabata pushup interval just 20 seconds of regular pushups followed by 10 seconds of rest, for 4 minutes?

Is a full workout considered 4 minutes of Tabata squat intervals, as in the video, or 4 minutes of squats followed by 4 minutes of Tabata pushup intervals?
Thx

“Tabata” refers to the work/rest interval of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times. You can use any exercise that has a fairly high iteration such as air squats, push ups, box jumps, burpees, lunge jumps, rowing, etc. A full workout could only be one exercise (try Tabata burpees and tell me you didn’t just work out), or it could be several exercises. I occasionally have my circuit class do Tabata intervals with as many as five different exercises. Train hard!

I highly recommend introducing stability ball. Stability ball makes your muscles work way harder making your own body weight even better weighlifting “equipment” in a sense. You can for example do pushups the harder way, placing your feet on the stabilization ball. I can add some tutorials for you on my website if you’d like to. Anyways, many thanks for sharing the videos.

Vic, two jobs, six kids, I love the 8-minute workouts. If I’m trying to build my entire fitness plan around these workouts, how do you recommend I approach. i.e. how many times a week, which workouts when, etc.

Hi!
Ive added a link back to this page with a short description to my fitness website http://www.quakefitness.com/blog
Scroll down the page and you will find it and a lot of other fitness and health articles.

The exercises are great, but the first one has too few pushups, esp if you can do 40-50 a set for 3-4 sets (120 – 200 total). So for more advanced athletes, I would suggest doing the same progression of burpees, but try the following pushups: 40, 30, 25, 20, 15, 15, 10, 5, 5